Milk consumption was widespread thousands of years before people were able to break it down properly, according to the largest study yet on the evolution of lactose tolerance in humans.
The ability to break down lactose was probably gained during episodes of acute crisis, not gradually over time, the study found.
The leading explanation was that humans gained lactase persistence so quickly as their evolution was deeply intertwined in a cycle with dairy. As humans were pressured into evolving lactase persistence due to the nutritional benefits of milk, the spread of lactase persistence would have in turn increased human reliance on milk, increasing the pressure to be lactose tolerant.
Using changes in population size as a proxy for malnutrition, the researchers found lack of food was 689 times more likely to explain the rise of lactose tolerance than constant selection pressure. Using population density as a proxy for the spread of deadly pathogens, they found that disease was 289 times more likely to account for the spread.
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